Nowadays WMs are more Project Managers than anything else. The main reason for this is that in the airports side they just will not resource units properly. They can pressure the WMs as much as they like because sadly for those guys it comes with the territory in new NATS whereas ultimately, us ordinary ATCOs can say no to doing anything outside of plugging in.
As for empathising with the workforce, the hardest thing for people to accept is not that their mate might now be their line manager but rather when their mate has a complete polar shift in personality and attitude and basically becomes a complete
pr
ck overnight. How can you have any respect for an individual who would slag off the GM on a daily basis only to get promoted and then sit you down and chant the company bull**** mantra at you? Those are the guys who can never have any credibility and are responsible for the growing divide between staff and management. Unfortunatley in NATS it's seen as the only way to get on.
Those who get promoted into management but still keep the respect of their colleagues don't seem to get any further because they have the balls to sometimes stand up and say no.
Daring to disagree with the way things are being done is contaray to the emperor's new clothes syndrome we suffer from now and you are immediately branded as a trouble maker and "anti NATS".